Record revenues help Manchester City record increased profit

Manchester City made a profit of £20.5million and generated record revenues of £398.1million during the 2015-16 season, the club have revealed.

It is the second successive year the club have recorded a surplus and underlines their continuing growth under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour and his Abu Dhabi United Group investment firm.

The figures, published in the club’s latest annual report, also show City are operating on a 50 per cent wage-revenue ratio and with zero financial debt.

City were transformed when Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008 and immediately bankrolled lavish spending on players.

Inevitably, heavy losses were sustained but the subsequent improvements on the field have been matched by developments off it and financial performance has improved year-on-year for the past eight years.

As recently as 2012 City sustained a £98million loss but the club returned to the black by generating an £11million profit last year and the upward trajectory has continued.

The £398.1million revenue figure represents an 11 per cent improvement on last year’s £351.8million and is made up largely of commercial income (£177.9million) and broadcasting money (£161.4million). Matchday income accounted for £52.5million of the total, an increase of 21 per cent.

All three areas benefited from City’s run to the Champions League semi-finals, Capital One Cup victory and Premier League top-four finish. Matchday income was also swelled the increase in capacity at the Etihad Stadium, which saw average Premier League attendances rise by more than 8,000 to 54,041.

Other significant activity included an investment in City’s parent company, City Football Group, by China Media Capital Holdings.

Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak hopes the year proves a turning point in the club’s evolution, with City becoming self-sustaining at elite level.

He wrote: “The transformation of Manchester City under the ownership of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has never been anything other than a long-term project. We have set ambitious goals and achieved many of them faster than expected in the last eight years, but we have never underestimated the scale of the undertaking.

“Manchester City has now reached a level of sporting and commercial maturity that allows one to feed the other. (This is) the vision for success and sustainability that we have been working towards since 2008.”